Around Utah

October 8, 2013

Ogden – The OGDEN-HINCKLEY AIRPORT had its 10,000th customer of 2013, making it eligible to receive a $1 million federal grant for airport improvements.

Summit/Wasatch Area

Monkey Mountain Lets Kids Run Wild

By Heather Stewart

Park City – MONKEY MOUNTAIN started out as a fun place for parents to bring their children to play. Just two and a half years later, it’s still a fun place to play—but it now encompasses drop-off daycare services, summer camps, playschool and special events.

Monkey Mountain opened its doors in Park City in December 2010. It was created by owner Sarah Carter, who lives in Park City part of each year, and was disappointed with the opportunities for her young children to engage in active play.

“They were living in town and they had young twins,” says Jennifer Sinclair, operations/business manager for Monkey Mountain. “She realized there wasn’t much to do to keep kids active, particularly when the weather was bad.”

Monkey Mountain features a large, four-tier play structure with a slide, as well as big, colorful animals that children can climb and slide on. It also has a softer play area for toddlers and a parents’ lounge with free wi-fi and flat-screen televisions.

It is also a state-licensed childcare facility, so parents can drop off their children on an hourly basis. That alone makes it a unique venue in a state where hourly drop-off daycare is a rarity.

Sinclair says Monkey Mountain is a great fit for the Park City community, which boasts a variety of adult activities—shopping on Main Street or at the outlets, visiting the Olympic Park, skiing and other winter sports—that are not always appropriate for young children.

“We really pride ourselves on promoting active minds and bodies,” says Sinclair. Monkey Mountain incorporates structured activities, like arts and crafts, into the play each hour. “We do more than have kids mindlessly play.”

Park City – Google selected PARK CITY as Utah’s first eCity. The eCity Awards recognize the strongest online business community in each state.

Cedar City – For more than 50 years, a Cedar City group has provided support, education and scholarships to women in the Iron County business world.

The group, called CEDAR CITY WOMEN IN BUSINESS, is an arm of the CEDAR CITY AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Deniece Allred, executive director of the group for the last three years, says the organization’s mission is to provide business and professional women in Iron County with a venue for networking, education and community involvement.

Although she doesn’t know much about the organization’s history, Allred does have a scrapbook from the 1950s with pictures of social events the group attended.

“I think women formed this organization back then because they weren’t allowed to do things in business,” she says. “Although it looks like it was more of a social thing back then, it has really evolved over the years.”

Currently, there are about 30 active members of the group, but more than 80 women have signed up through their chamber membership, which is a requirement to be a part of the group.

The organization hosts a monthly luncheon with a different guest speaker each time. Topics range across all areas of business. “The women in our organization are professional women,” Allred says. “Our goal is that women feel connected in a man’s world. They can bring their strengths to the organization and help strengthen their weaknesses through help from other women.”